Gas company faces sentencing in R.I. in mercury case

PROVIDENCE, R.I. — A Texas gas company faces a $38.1 million fine when it's sentenced in the coming week for illegally storing hazardous mercury waste.

Southern Union was scheduled to be sentenced on Friday in U.S. District court in Providence after being convicted last year of storing liquid mercury without a permit at a vacant and run-down facility in Pawtucket.

The mercury had been removed from 1960s-era home gas regulators and was exposed to the public when a group of vandals broke into the building in 2004. The toxic liquid was spilled on the ground and at a nearby apartment complex.

Federal prosecutors say a fine approaching the maximum is essential as a deterrent to other corporations. They say the reckless storage of mercury endangered nearby school students, and that the vandalism and subsequent spill was foreseeable.

Southern Union argues that it deserves leniency because no one at the company knew it was breaking the law and because it cleaned up the mess and provided housing and food stipends for residents of the contaminated apartment complex. It says the spill would never have happened if not for the vandals and that there was minimal environmental damage.

"Southern Union brings to this court a consistent record of achievement in environmental and corporate compliance," lawyers for the company wrote in a sentencing memorandum.

The company was acquitted of two other charges of failing to report the spill and of illegally storing gas regulators that still contained the mercury.